Ghost Whisperer: Shadows
by Thor2000
Summary: Melinda crosses paths with the history of the TV Series with one of the most haunted houses in TV history. Can she help cross over the son of Barnabas and Angelique Collins?
1. Chapter 1

Eastern Pennsylvania boasted several small towns considered perfect enough for families to settle down away from the presence that was the big cities. There were the towns of Oak Ridge, Pine Valley and Rolling Hills, as well as sleepy little communities like Arbutus and Danvers, but among the almost perfect was Grandview nestled along the woods around where Interstate 13 met with Interstate 1 with Highway 18 to the north. Highway 18 turned into Grandview Avenue where it ran past the town square, the center of town where parents brought kids to play while they could rest. Everything here was close by. Storeowners could rush across the square to get anything to eat from the sandwich place to the hamburger place. Locals peeked into the pet store, the electronics store and the antique place where the attractive young brunette with the shapely figure was sometimes talking out loud to herself. It was a mild eccentricity when compared to other locals. People liked Melinda not because she was attractive but because she had a big heart. If she had conversations with herself, it was nothing to be concerned with at the present.

"If she buys that ugly thing, I'm haunting her." Gracie Walker spoke out loud.

"Oh, uh…" Melinda tried to dissuade Gracie's daughter, Abby, from buying a loud, extremely decorative clock with cherubs and animals carved into it. "I've got an ideal.... if you want a conversation piece, how about this?" Melinda turned round to a grandfather clock with a glass case. "It would fit perfectly with the wood planning in your dining room."

"How did you know I had wood paneling?" Abby asked. She did not know her dearly departed mother's ghost was near her.

"Oh, uh…" Melinda looked over to her friend, Delia, and looked again. She was starting to get to be an expert in improvisation as she concealed her ability to see ghosts. "I knew the old owners of your house… I recall the paneling."

"Oh..." Abby accepted that response and looked the clock over. "Well, yeah… I guess I like it… I think it will work out great." She started fishing for her credit card as Delia moved over to check out the young bride. Melinda shined with a big grin and a light breath and then turned to the spirit of the dearly departed Mrs. Walker.

"You know…" She spoke secretly to the mother's ghost. "I can help you to cross over."

"Oh, I'm okay…" Gracie grinned to Melinda. "I will in a few days. I just want to see my daughter and her new husband get settled." She faded away and Melinda turned round to adjust some antique dolls on display and some more bric-a-brac. Abby seemed happy with her purchase, and Delia made the arrangement for her so to deliver on time after school. A light breath, Delia turned on to her left leg, looked to Melinda with her soft chocolate-colored eyes and gave her a look.

"Let me guess…" Delia started. "She's got a ghost."

"Yeah," Melinda spoke. "But she's already planned to cross over. She just wants to see her daughter off before going."

"Why can't they all be that easy?"

"Well, they can…" Melinda spoke. "But I like the harder ones for being more interesting."

"To each his own…" Delia lightly looked away and stepped back to check the receipts for the day and then take them in back to file them. Melinda picked up her feather duster to keep the objects clean and looking good enough to sell to her customers. She started with an antique baby cradle, over some collectible wood toys and some old vinyl records from the Thirties and Forties, but as she moved round to the front of the store, she was surprised by someone she was not expecting.

"Can you see me?" It was the apparition of an old codger with no hair, a large waddle of skin under his chin and fatherly brown eyes wearing an old shirt with suspenders, old pants and old shoes. "My kids got rid of all my old clothes. I can't find them."

"Your kids or your clothes."

"My clothes." The old man seemed upset. "They tossed out my old Air Force Uniform and the uniform my father wore. I wanted them to keep that stuff."

"I'm afraid I don't have anything like that here." Melinda wanted to help him. "Have you checked the used clothes store down the block?"

"If I find them, will you help me?"

"Of course…" Melinda watched as the old timer turned away into nothingness. She composed herself with her hand up to her violet long-sleeved shirt, a deep relaxing breath and turned to adjust a display of turn of the century kettle pots and old kitchen utensils around an old bed-warmer. She picked up some boxes she had been intending to move and turned round to swordplay coming through the wall from the hardware store next door. One of them was Union Army Colonel Josiah L. Daniels of the 18th Regimental Area Corp. who lost his life to consumption in the area around 1863 while defending Grandview. The other was Confederate Infantry Commander Matthew A. Lincoln of the 23rd Battalion who was trampled by a horse outside of town three months after the Civil War ended. They were supposed to be haunting the old Montgomery House eight blocks away, a former Union hospital now known as a museum. Daniels slashed at Lincoln, and Daniels parried with his own rival still fighting about the war.

"Guys, guys, guys… please!" Melinda was tired of them fighting through town. "You're supposed to stay to the Montgomery House."

"We got anxious…" Lincoln pushed off Daniels. "No true animosity, Miss Gordon, but we came into town and decided to test our swordplay skills with each other."

"We barely see anyone at the museum except children…" Daniels spoke as he checked his sword. "And they really don't care about the stories we left behind. Not that the curators there get the stories right."

"Well," Melinda thought a second with her hand to her head. "I don't condone this, but haunted landmarks do very well. If you can spur some attention to the place…"

"Maybe we can get those TAPS guys to come for a visit…" Daniels turned to Lincoln. "My dear, lady…" They both bowed in old-fashioned respect to Melinda.

"If anything, I really believe you both should be crossing over…." Melinda added as they sheathed their weapons and vanished through the back of the store. A frustrated but innocent light shake of her head, Melinda lifted one of the boxes at her feet and placed it atop another. As she started lifting the two together, she heard the bell on the doors and was grateful to have a human customer of the corporeal variety. She turned round and recognized someone she knew. Her eyes recognized that good-looking face. Dark hair, big brown jolly eyes with a square jaw atop a black sweater, and blue jeans. His face was just lightly different than the last time she had seen him… maybe a bit fuller…

"William…" Melinda's personality alighted to see him again.

"What's a little girl doing with all those boxes…" He mused excitedly to be seeing her. He was William Collins, a paranormal researcher known more by the horror novels based on his research of the paranormal, and the scion of one of New England's most wealthy families. His ancestor had founded a town, his family owned property and were friends with Kennedys and Carringtons. Despite the money and prestige, he was one of the most accessible minor celebrities of the East Coast. Melinda fretted and fussed with her hands unsure to hug him or give him a peck to the cheek.

"It's been a long time!" A light came to Melinda's eyes to see him again. "So… what are you doing in Grandview? How are you doing?"

"I'm doing okay…" William looked intently upon her and recalled once being in love with her. It was a secret he had kept from her out of insecurity. "I'm married now."

"You got married?" Melinda stopped behind the counter. "You should have told me. I would liked to have been there." She paused a moment. "To be truthful, I'm married now too."

"I hope he's treating you right."

"Yes, he is…" Melinda glowed like a woman in love with her husband. "His name is Jim, and he's a EMT. So what about your wife? Is she with you?"

"Ally?" William responded distractedly. "Well, that's sort of why I'm here, you see…"

"Melinda…" Delia interrupted coming out. "I was thinking. Maybe now is a good time to finally display this china cabinet. We could put it in the window display with the porcelain dishes in it."

"That's sounds great. Delia…" Melinda looked from her to William. "Remember I told you I knew the author of that book I gave you on your birthday, well, this is him. My old friend, William Collins from Collinwood…" She gestured to William. Delia looked over and around through the shop. She felt a light chill dancing down her back.

"Oh, honey… I'm so sorry…" Delia couldn't see him. Melinda dropped her excited demeanor and looked back with mourning sadness in her heart.

"Did I forget to mention I died?" William looked back upon her.


	2. Chapter 2

2

The old man's name was Nathan Samuelson. He was a decorated officer in both the world wars, and once he found his old uniform and that of his father, he had Melinda pick them up and take them to his kids still getting ready to sell his house. It was the most peaceful meeting she had done in a long time. Both the sons and the daughter believed in ghosts and were very excited to meet Melinda and interview her with questions as she acted as medium between them and their father. Afterward, Nathan passed over happily into the light, and his kids were offering Melinda money to help them in their searches for ghosts. Melinda just politely resisted. She wasn't interested in going public with her psychic skills, and she hoped they respected her choice. After telling Jim that story, she went on to tell her husband about the old friend she just learned had passed away.

"Wow, he's gone?" Jim sipped his coffee as Melinda washed the dinner dishes. "I loved his novels… well, the one's made into movies…"

Melinda gave him a look.

"So, let me get this straight…" Jim remained intrigued by his wife's talents. "His wife hasn't eaten or gotten out of bed since his funeral, and the family can't do anything to get her out of this depression. Why does he think you can help her?"

"I don't know…" Melinda set aside the platter from the inside of the microwave to dry. "I guess he thinks I can succeed where they failed." She wiped down the counter and sink area from washing her dishes.

"And we have to drive all the way to Maine to meet her." Jim added. "He's got to be the most long-distance spirit you've ever encountered."

"William was a very perplexing, aggravating and yet lively cerebral person when I knew him." Melinda turned and wandered forward to their dining room to restore the place mats. "He had two personalities. One introverted and another out-going…" She looked up to her husband. "When he was animated, he could show the biggest heart, but when he was writing, he tended to vanish into himself. I guess all that energy is why I mistook him for being alive."

"And you used to do psychic work for him."

"Yes…" Melinda picked up her after dinner coffee as she headed to the living room to relax. "He regularly worked with a girl named Dawn Rochner, but her acuity wasn't as extensive as mine…" Melinda sat to relax on the sofa. She perused the TV listings. The _Garfield_ movie was on tonight.

"Why didn't you tell me about it?" Jim next to her as she pulled her legs up close to her on the sofa.

"Well, I only did it the once…" Melinda told the tale….

...May 18, 2005 in Grand View when it was younger…

It was a few years ago and a warm spring. Many people wondered what the summer was going to be like if it was this hot already. Melinda was wearing a light and airy white sundress to deal with the heat and carrying a bag to her store. The company had just put up her sign last night, "Same As It Never Was." She was so excited. The location had been empty for five years because of the Italian grocer haunting it, and once she did what he wanted, he moved on. No more weird noises in the night. No more whispering sounds from the basement. No more things moving around. Whatever had kept the last business from being successful was over with and Melinda was looking forward to great success here and in her private life. By this time next month, she was going to be married to the most handsome and thoughtful EMT in Driscoll County. James Theodore Clancy had not only purposed, but had put down a payment for a home for the two of them. He also shaved away that beard and mustache! She could do nothing but grin excitedly as he life became better and better.

"Melinda…" Andrea looked up from cleaning. "There is no way we'll be ready to open on Monday." She looked around the boxes and objects both donated and purchased for the antique store. "Maybe I should return to my old job at the bank."

"But you hated it there."

"But I was working."

"Andrea…" Melinda grinned. "You're just getting pre-business jitters. We'll be all right!"

"But what about…" Andrea pointed to the back room with the breathing sounds.

"Mr. Tagliscore?" Melinda knew the ghost. "He crossed over. He's long gone…"

"Really?" Andrea calmed just a bit. "I guess that's a little better." She swept up the floor and scooped the last of the detritus into the dustpan, but she still looked a bit apprehensive before entering the back room. When she returned, Melinda was unpacking the dolls donated by Hewitt's into the cabinet of shelves near the cash register. Her eyes drifted over to the old hardware barrel at the support beam. In her mind's eyes, she saw making a display out of it.

"A lot of this stuff isn't worth selling…" Melinda found one doll had its porcelain head caved in under the hair and another was missing its eyes rolling around in the head. She placed the damaged dolls back in the box and looked around for the other box of dolls. "You know what I'm thinking…"

"I'm thinking pizza with vegetarian toppings and pineapple." Andrea responded.

"Lunch?" Melinda checked her watch. "It's not twelve yet."

"I didn't eat breakfast."

"Okay…" Melinda consented. "Do you still have a coupon for Little Italy?"

Andrea picked up her purse to look.

"I got it." Melinda had this one. "I've got more boxes in the car anyway. Diet or regular?"

"I'm feeling adventurous." Andrea answered. "Regular."

"Regular." Melinda alighted with a big grin and turned out to place the order across the street and grab the boxes out of her car. Once she was gone, Andrea started feeling guilty. She could have made that run, but she wasn't paying attention. Plus, ghost or not, she was not used to being alone in the shop just yet. The feeling of being watched was gone, but the memory stayed behind. She started setting up a display of wooden toys on the barrel with a period photo as a decoration. With that done, she looked up for Melinda and noticed a guy across the street looking up at their sign. He was in khakis with a dark blue t-shirt, beaten leather jacket and a worn fedora. He looked as if he was looking for the Lost Ark or the Temple of Doom. A glance at the traffic, he hopped across the road and approached the shop.

"Hi…" He pressed his way inside and entered. "Nice place for an antique shop…"

"We're not open yet." Andrea thought he was cute in a George Clooney sort of way. "Can I help you…"

"Collins…" He took her hand a bit smitten by this African-American beauty before him. "William Collins… Miss Gordon, I presume?"

"Oh no…" Andrea reacted a bit embarrassed and a light chuckle. "I'm Andrea Marino. Melinda's my friend and partner…"

"Oh…" Collins reacted a bit as he reached into his pocket to pull out a pen and card. "Well, look…" He scribbled a phone number on his card. "I do a lot of work in paranormal research…"

"Paranormal research?"

"And I'm very interested in her psychic skills." He noticed Andrea making a face of astonishment. Either Melinda's abilities were a secret or Andrea was surprised that he had found out about them. "Could you give her my card?"

"Yeah… sure." Andrea was taken aback by his visit and read his card. "William Collins, Paranormal Investigator and Vampire Killer?" She looked up at him.

"The cards were a practical joke from my sister." He was still trying to get rid of them. "Look, I'm strictly professional. Please?"

"I'll give her the message." Andrea promised.

"Thanks…" Collins turned on his heel to head back out, and Andrea picked up her purse to get her cell phone. She wanted to call Melinda to tell him about this guy, but her phone was not where she had left it. It was not there. Where had she left it? Meanwhile, William Collins was heading back out to the park and scanning his messages on his cell phone. One from his mother, two from his sister, another from his cousin J. R., and another from Ally in Boston. As much as he wanted to talk to that sexy lady lawyer in Boston, he hesitated until he was back at his hotel room. Since he was in Grandview, there was one call he had to make. He knew people in the area. Hitting a number, he waited through the dial tone to get a recording.

"You've just got the desk of Professor Rick Payne…" The recording said in his colleague's voice. "I'm either in class or ignoring your call. Please leave a message after the funerary dirge." The music played.

"Rick, I'm in the area." Collins looked over to a place called Little Italy Pizzeria and suddenly felt like Italian food for lunch. "Give me a call." He passed the military monument in the park and picked up his step. Hastening past a mother leading her little boy by the hand, he waited for one car going one way then another in the other direction to pass and hopped up on to the next curb like a young man full on spirit. A brief look through the window, he pushed his way inside with the bell ringing on the door. Two people in line as he came up to wait behind a very attractive brunette waiting on her order. He looked her over from the sundress she was wearing very well filled out by her figure to her long dark hair. It was even darker than his own. She was not tall, but she was very enticing to guys who admired the female shape. Possessed with this cover girl –slash-model look and a body to die for, she looked like a goddess brought to life. She had long curly dark hair shaping her posture and stunning big brown eyes like those of a little girl.

"Can I help you?" Melinda noticed him checking her out.

"I'm sorry, I was just…" William apologized. "You're a very attractive woman."

"Let me guess..." Melinda knew his type. "You're a photographer, and you'd like me to pose for you." Melinda had dealt with these guys before. "I'm sorry, but I'm not interested, and if you can't get that through your head, my fiancé is just down the street and can explain it to you."

"I'm not a photographer…" William tried to be a gentleman. "I'm a writer, and I apologize if I offended you. I don't go around approaching young ladies… if anything, I was just considering asking you to lunch, but since you're already engaged…" He started to turn away.

"No, wait…" Melinda was ashamed for offending him. "I'm sorry, but… a lot of guys tend to come on to me."

"It's my fault…" William apologized. "I should not have made you feel awkward." He extended his hand. "I'm William Collins."

"The writer?" Melinda recognized him from his novels. "I've read your stuff." She grinned to neutralize her offense and introduce herself. "Melinda Gordon." She reached to shake his hand.

"You're Melinda Gordon?" William was caught unaware.

"You know me?"

"I'm sorry, but…" William gestured to a table with chairs for her to sit with him and talk. "You're not what I was expecting." He was expecting someone much older, maybe in their late thirties to early forties, someone not necessarily attractive. "My card…" He pulled it out from his inside jacket pocket.

"William Collins, Paranormal Investigator and Vampire Killer?" She looked up at him curiously.

"My sister got me the cards for me." William apologized. "She thinks she's funny." He paused. "You see, in addition to my writing, I also run and operate the Collinsport Ghost Society. I'm into paranormal research."

"Paranormal research…" Melinda whispered it under breath and became worried. "What do you want with me?"

"Well," William openly discussed his business. "My team was recently investigating a place known as the Cyrus House in Osment, New Hampshire, where... for some reason or another, your name came up."

"How?"

"My regular psychic is a old friend named Dawn Rochner… She's also a schoolteacher." William continued at the window. "I've investigated the Cyrus House once before, but on this occasion, Dawn got your name from the house and where to find you."

"My name from the house?"

"Yeah… it practically requested your presence." Collins responded a bit intrigued. "Weird, huh…" He paused to clear his throat. "Now, this is very unorthodox, and I usually don't do it this way, but…" He looked away and then back to Melinda. "How interested are you in working as a psychic?"

Melinda responded with a light gasp.

"I take it you're not public with your abilities?" He noticed.

"No, not really…" Melinda confessed and reacted a bit demure and offset. Her cell phone rang and she gestured to William to give her a minute to take the call. "Hello? Andrea, what?" She paused as Andrea went into a brief description of meeting William and her experience with him. "Well, I met him over here. Look… I'll tell you all about it in a minute. " She answered passively and clicked off her phone as Mr. Bonetti at the counter called her order.

"Look, Mr. Collins…" Melinda rose with her money in hand to pay for her pizza. "Thank you for your offer, but… I'm not really interested in investigating haunted houses." She paid for his pizza and took it down as if she were carrying a tray of invisible dishes. "I just much rather prefer helping earthbound spirits…"

"I'll pay you for your time." William offered to carry her pizza for her. "Five hundred dollars? Ten hundred?"

Melinda just giggled under her breath and took her pizza and bread back.

"Thank you, but I'm not…"

"Fifteen hundred…" He brought her drinks and was following her out of Little Italy and back to her antique place.

"You're really eager for me to help you." She laughed a bit and wondered how high he would go. This horror writer-slash-paranormal researcher was really entranced by her.

"Two thousand dollars and… I'll pay for advertising for your antique shop." He stopped in front of her and gestured to her place of business. "You're telling me that you're not the least bit interested to find out why the ghosts at this house specifically requested you."

Melinda stopped across the street. While Collins was a bit forward at her initial impression of him, she found him dashing and a bit eccentric. He had a pure soul like a young boy with childlike naiveté and otherworldly impressions. She just giggled a bit more at him.

"You pay my first month's rent on the shop and advertising, and you have a deal." She could not help from smiling.

"I'll buy the building for you if you want." He was falling in love with her and looked at her as if he was a little boy.


	3. Chapter 3

3

Melinda had told Jim about her ability to see spirits before he had proposed to her. If anything, her ability to see ghosts actually cinched his desire to be married to her and call her his wife, but once he heard that Melinda had turned down Collins's offer of two thousand dollars, he jokingly told her to try and get it back. It was stuff like that that proved to her that she wanted to be married to him. After arranging her weekend absence with Andrea and Jim, she promised to be back by Monday and met with William at the train station. Before leaving, Jim got William to autograph a copy of his "Forever Immortal" novel and even warned the writer half-seriously what he'd do if Melinda did not come back. Collins then half-seriously warned Jim his mother was the descendant of a powerful witch from Martinique, and they left it like that – as sparring comrades locked in competition than actual enemies. A brief kiss to Jim and Melinda was taking the train to Manchester, New Hampshire with a brooding writer who acted as if he was her big brother.

Along the way, the two of them discussed and compared their respective pasts. Melinda described how her grandmother had the gift and told her about it. William described his life at Collinwood in Maine, one of the reputed most haunted structures in New England. At different times, the estate boasted somewhere between twenty to thirty ghosts from five separate time periods. They ranged from Josette DuPres, believed to have tossed herself from the cliffs near the estate to Reverend Silas Trask, a witch-hunter who had vanished on the estate around 1795. There was the ghost of housekeeper Beth Chavez in the attic, the ghost of governess Daphne Harridge in the East Wing, the ghost of the second Quentin Collins last seen back in 1968 and the ghost of tiny Sara Collins, who mysteriously vanished before the birth of William's sister, Sara Collins. Rumor was that Sara was the reincarnation of the younger girl. Melinda absorbed his family's ghost stories as if she was becoming a Collins family member herself. The deeper she heard of his family lore the more she practically felt she could be a Collins. She listened to his stories of being an investigator to the Hotel Overlook, Alcatraz, Hull House Mortuary, Eastern State Penitentiary, the Gracey Mansion, Waverly Hills Sanitarium and Vannacutt Sanitarium and studied his photos of those locations. Photos of shadow figures, anomalous human figures, faces in windows and portions of figures on staircases… she thought she knew everything there was to know about ghosts, but he taught her a few things… and she taught him a few things. Like remarking on the ghostly conductor on the train…

Little after five o'clock, the train rolled into Manchester and William's team was there to meet them. Henry Desmond was the writer and magazine editor who joked Melinda looked to be fifteen-years old. A contractor from Collinsport well-versed in the sounds that houses made naturally, Larry Wedekind competed with Steve Barnette, a former Boston police officer turned forensic detective who added his experience to supernatural cases, but then William played the big brother and neutralized their competing by informing them Melinda had a fiancé and was about to get married. Of Korean ancestry, Matthew Oh was the team's tech expert along with Nicholas Roshenkov, a huge human bear of Russian ancestry, borrowed from Doctor Harvey's team based in Friendship, Maine. Built like a American Marine but endeared with the compassion of a veterinarian, his chosen profession, he tagged along as extra help. Red-haired Andrea Welch and brunette Dawn Rochner were the eye candy of the group. Andrea claimed to be descended from actual 18th Century Romanian vampire-killers and witch-hunters, but Dawn was briefly jealous then fascinated that Melinda's ability was much more purer… that much more "clearer" than her own. Dawn could only sense ghosts as if she was describing them over the phone, but Melinda could see them like real people. Just how the Cyrus house an hour away would reveal itself to her was going to be an experience.

Osment was a small town. Less than a town, more than a community, their one school only had five hundred kids, their town hall was above the courthouse on the same block as the barber shop and a small market and the sheriff knew just about everyone by name. The one bank was on the corner with a McDonald and a Burger King at opposite corners and the post office across the street. Melinda was enchanted by the small slice of Americana. It was like being transported into an old Fifties television show. After getting the keys for the Cyrus house from Deputy Ron Fife, the team from the Collinsport Ghost Society drove north past the drug store, the bank and several businesses and homes out to the one school, the garage down the street and then turned at the crossroads for the dirt road dipping off the highway for the Cyrus House. Comparing their psychic histories en route, Melinda turned from Dawn and looked out to the ramshackle two-story farmhouse. T was dusk when they left town, but early evening by time they reached it. Empty since 1967, the gravel driveway was lined with weeds with a random rabbit scurrying out the way of the team's two vans. The place might have been grand once, but now shutters flapped in the breeze or rest supporting the wall. No stars appeared in the overcast sky. Birds nested in the boards over windows, supports were missing from the balcony over the door and sections of shingles piled in eaves along the roof. Larry gave Melinda a hand as she stepped from the van. Matt got their mobile generator ready to run their equipment. William and Henry personally checked every camera, recorder, EMF detector and sensor. Nicholas pulled out Hal, the team's mobile camera unit operated by remote control.

"This is it?" Melinda looked up a bit chilled to be in its presence.

"Yeah, this is it." Dawn confided with Melinda. "I find its best to keep saying to myself, "It's just an old house. It's just an old house.'"

"It's that bad?" Melinda asked.

"Bad is going into Hull Mortuary or Vannacutt Sanitarium without flashlights…" Welch stood on her other side. "This place is like Haunted Mansion at Disneyland and then discovering the special effects weren't actually turned on." Melinda looked at her and then to the house. A piece of curtain fell back in one of the windows. The ghosts knew they had guests.

"When was the last time someone lived here?"

"Nineteen Seventy-Three." Andrea answered. "But the last caretaker passed away in Nineteen Ninety-Nine. He's yet to be replaced."

Melinda looked back to William looking for guidance. She trusted him, and he looked back toward her with a lot of faith in her. The main thought at the top of her head was who in this house requested her. How did they know about her ability? What was going to happen now that she was here?

"Melinda…" William came up. "Our routine is like this: one team out, one team in with a third team following on camera duty. Larry and I will escort you in first then Henry and Nick with Dawn following behind."

"Any advice?"

"Don't go upstairs without us." Larry added pulling on his CGS cap. "The floor is unpredictable." He led the way with a handheld camera. Melinda looked to William as he unlocked the door for them both.

The interior smelled musty like an old wet newspaper mixed with dust. Melinda could see two sets of sliding doors at her left and side, one set partially ajar to the dining room. Beneath the balcony stretching left and right above her was intense darkness but for the trace of diminishing light in a back room. She strolled forward slowly as the hardwood floor creaked and groaned under her feet. As she looked round, a fleeting shadow rushed from the far wall she saw in the dining room, surprising someone rushing to hide. Out the corner of her eyes, she saw figures sitting on the upstairs balcony… two little kids holding on to the railings with their heads sticking through and legs dangling through over the edge. They were there one second… and gone the next.

"Don't run away…" Melinda spoke as if she were their teacher. "I just want to talk to you."

"Wait a second…" William turned Melinda to him. "You saw something already?"

"Yes…" Melinda responded softly. "Two little kids… a boy and a girl in old period clothes on the landing…"

"She saw the kids! She saw the kids!!!" Larry excitedly responded and aimed his camera with the FLIR on and aimed it to the area she pointed. He didn't get anything but the white outline of the railing on the heat sensor in front of varied blue and violet shading. There was a faint red wisp fading through the area. Melinda strided calmly forward as if she were exploring.

"The last people to live here was in the Fall of 1973." William announced holding an EMF detector with a penny wedged in it in the "ON" position. "They said they experienced sounds and voices, footsteps and things moving around, but a week after the apparitions started, they decided to get out."

"No one moved in after that?"

"Well, they had a big mouth and sold the story to the newspaper which ruined the real estate company's chance for selling the place." William added as he tried pushing the doors to the parlor open wider. "It's been a hot potato since then passed from agency to agency. The "For Sale" sign out front keeps vanishing."

"And I'm gonna keep burning those signs!!!" A male voice sounded to Melinda and she spun round toward the dining room.

"Did you hear that?" She asked William and Larry. They looked at other.

"No…"

"But maybe we got it on tape." Larry spoke into his walkie-talkie. "Nick, check the tape before Melinda."

"I'm on it."

"I think it was in here." Melinda rolled the door open wider to the dining room where the table and chairs were covered in sheets and the old candelabra on the table was covered in dusty cobwebs. She saw five male figures at the end of the table, but to her eyes, the candles were burning. She saw one man with a thick dark beard and baldhead glancing up to her at the head of the table. Two younger men who resembled hired hands, one with a gash or wound in his bloodstained white shirt, sat on Melinda's side of the table and looked back to her without a word then back to their game. The other gentlemen were an old black man with white hair and a thin, gaunt figure in black on the other side of the paper. Though they appeared lifelike, they had an otherworldly quality to them as if like they house they were trapped in time or covered by the fine dust of the ages. The older man was holding old cards in his hands and passing them out to his ghostly compatriots.

"Will…" Larry pulled off his headphones to his recorder latched to his belt. "What does that sound like to you?" He was getting a noise from out of the air.

"That's like…" William thought a second. "Playing cards rapped on a table?" He looked to Melinda moving around the empty table without hitting any of the chairs in her way. She looked around something before her as Larry tried getting a reading.

"Boys, we got guests again…" The old overseer spoke.

"Just ignore them…" The family patriarch dealt their cards and took his hand.

"What are you playing for?" Melinda asked.

"The deed, the property, the moonshine in the cellar…" The patriarch spoke. "Over the years, we've each owned the house at least twenty times each."

"Not much else to do." The overseer responded as William and Larry scanned the room.

"If you're buying the house, you better not dig up Claire's garden…" The young man with the bloody shirt responded. "She gets mad whenever someone talks about paving it over."

"I won't pave it over…" Melinda responded. "You know… I can help you all pass over."

"My god…" Larry reacted and turned to William. "She talks to them as if they were real people."

"She probably sees them like real people." William answered back as he tried seeing signs of whom she was speaking to at the table. "She's got to be the most pure psychic we've ever encountered."

"Where's Claire?" Melinda asked.

"Second floor…" The patriarch looked up from the head of the table. "She's expecting you, Miss Gordon…"

"She never comes down…" The undertaker spoke.

"I want to speak to Claire…" Melinda turned round the table to William.

"Claire…" William lifted his head a bit in the scant light. "Melinda, I've researched all the known history of this house. I've identified eight possible separate surviving consciousnesses and ten place memories possibly haunting this house. There is no Claire."

"Well," Melinda smiled at him. "You made a mistake. She never leaves the upstairs." She headed for the staircase, but William stopped her.

"There's a good reason for that." Larry held his flashlight up and aimed it up. There was a large gapping hole of missing stairs five steps up to the top landing. Where the steps connected to the top, a large mouth of wooden teeth folded inward toward a dark gullet ready to swallow another person stupid enough to invade the house.

"October 31, 1999…" William knew the reason behind the hole. "Eighteen year old Michael Musso and his girlfriend came here for sex. On the top landing, they crashed all the way through to the basement. They were finally found three days later. He lost the use of his legs… she had to have the lower part of her left leg amputated."

"We didn't do it!!!" Three voices called out in unison from the back of the house.

"The back stairs are safe." The phantom little girl clung briefly to Melinda and faded away again. She looked to the little girl just as she faded away.

"The back stairs are safe." Melinda told William and Larry and lead the way under the stairs to a dimming light. She walked upon a kitchen lit by a kerosene lamp on the table. While William and Larry treaded through complete darkness and adjusted to the shadows, their cute brunette guest was lighted by spectral lights showing the way. While there was an old dingy lamp covered in dust at the table, it was not lit for their eyes. Melinda noticed the two children seated at the table playing in coloring books. A housekeeper in an old dress turned round excitedly by her arrival from the cast iron wood-burning stove. She seemed flustered at first then bowed to be in Melinda's presence.

"My lady…" She pulled back blonde locks from her face. "Welcome to Cyrus House. If you are so inclined to living here, we promise not to scare you."

"How about Claire?" Melinda walked past the children creating pictures of red schoolhouses and sunny field of animals. "Does she scare anyone?"

"Miss Claire runs the house…"

"I'm getting a spike in EMF here." William paused at the stove and checked the old water pump at the sink. "It's at 1.5… 1.8… 2.1… 2.5…"

"Melinda, keep asking about Claire." Larry unwittingly and unknowingly walked through the housekeeper. "Whoa, I just had a cold chill down my back!"

"You just walked through one of them. I hope you know that." Melinda turned to the back mud porch and looked up the back stairs to complete darkness. She felt a dark chill down her back. Something about the second floor was more for-bidding… she wasn't sure she wanted to go up there, but she could not stop herself from stepping on the first step and placing her left foot on the next step. Whatever was up there was colder… darker than the rest…

"Melinda…" William placed his hand over hers on the railing. "Floor?"

"Can you feel that?" Melinda looked to him. "I'm feeling a very powerful presence up there. I don't see how these spirits survive here."

"Well…" William looked to Larry and back to her. "Melinda, spirits absorb energy, and this house is close to the center of three very powerful interlocked electrical towers in the area plus a very strong creek beyond the old Cyrus family cemetery on the property. Sometimes, spirits draw energy from electromagnetic as well as elemental energies."

"Somehow…" Melinda moved forward. "I get the feeling Claire's getting most of it."

"If this Claire exists…" Larry responded. William looked at the outline of his shadow and headed after Melinda carefully taking each step at a time. There was not a sound in the house except for their shoes on the wood steps, the creaking of the wood under their feet and Melinda's breath as she draped away cobwebs in her path. She wasn't seeing a seeing a sign of droppings of any sort of this house was abandoned for as long as it had been. It was as if the vermin that might infest this place was afraid of it as well. If only William's team was that smart.

"William…" Nicholas's voice squawked through their walkie-talkie. "Are you in the west end of the house?"

"No, we're on the back stairs." William followed Melinda to the top landing and the main hall running the length of the house. "Why?"

"We're in the family cemetery." Nick answered. "We saw lights in the master bedroom from out here."

"I'll check it out."

"Claire…" Melinda was bathed in darkness for the first time. She couldn't see her hand before her face, but at the end of the hall, she saw the outline of a figure standing before a window at the far end. She stopped William from passing her, and Larry stayed behind them listening to the ambient sounds of the house. What was that noise he was getting? It sounded like… an old Victrola record player? He got William to hear it.

"Melinda, I've been waiting for you…" Claire's shadow spoke.

"Who are you?" Melinda asked unafraid as her eyes strained to see through the dark. She had been lit all this way; why not here? "Why did you call me here?"

"Come closer…" Claire extended her arm toward Melinda coming closer.

"What do you want of me?" Melinda glided down the hall trying to see this matriarch closer. She seemed younger than she suspected. She had very long dark hair down her head, shoulders and back. Her period dress was long and white, but diminished blue-gray in this darkened night setting. The center of it was splattered with something dark as if she had been shot point blank to the chest with a shotgun. The floor creaked loudly under Melinda's foot. William looked round for her.

"Melinda, not another step!!!" He yelled at her.

"Claire…" Melinda strolled forward. "Let me help you…" She reached Claire stepping into the moonlight streaming through the house. An evil grin to her face, she looked exactly like Melinda!!! Melinda's foot stepped on to a moldy section of carpet and crashed through the rotten floor underneath. Her body sunk through the floor and the rotten carpet, but William jumped to the floor and slid close enough to grab her about the shoulders. The lovely Grandview psychic had just a split second to whirl around and grab William from falling to her death. Falling only as far as her arms, she heard Claire giggling under her breath with a cackling little satisfied grimace before vanishing. William was holding on to her under her arms.

"I got you!" He told her. "I got you!" Larry raced up and lent another hand, bracing his foot against the wall, reaching down and lifting Melinda up out of the floor. She was hysterical and scared to death.

"Why does she look like me?" She screamed and shook William with tears in her face. "Why does she look like me?!!!"


	4. Chapter 4

4

William kept his promise and paid not just one month on the rent for her antique store but the next month as well. He also paid to have a billboard put up to announce the existence of her shop and three weeks of advertisements in the Grandview Gazette as a way of apologizing to her for getting hurt. Steve fixed her sprained leg as best as he could as a police officer and scoutmaster, and Jim cared for it again when she got home. He was upset with William that Melinda got hurt, but he could not get very angry with him since William promised to never ask her to do another haunted house. His word was his bond, and although Melinda thought of him as an older brother keeping up with him in letters and e-mails, she turned down all his invites to visit Collinwood. However, she could not turn down that invite forever… the Friday after his spirit appeared to her, she and Jim decided to take the drive on their own time. It was a nice drive taking Interstate One up the Atlantic coast, taking the time to see the sites and sample the cuisine along the way. They went up through New Jersey, New York, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Boston, Massachusetts where something interesting happened. When they stayed at the Tipton Hotel, manager Marion Moseby told them that Mister Collins had already arranged for them to stay in his private suite in the hotel.

"Wait, that's impossible…" Jim looked to Melinda then back to Mr. Moseby. "You know the man is dead, right?"

"Yes, I know…" Mr. Moseby arranged for bellboy to take up Melinda and Jim's bags. "But according to our computer, he has an open invitation for you to use it anytime you are in town." Moseby reached to get their key.

"Wow…" Melinda realized William was much more active as a ghost than he was in life.

The following morning after their complimentary breakfast, Melinda and Jim were driving up into Maine and at about noontime turning on to Highway 186 near Rockport south along the coast of Frenchman's Bay. Melinda knew they were approaching Collinsport when she saw the ghost of Clara DuPres, a beautiful blonde witch from the Seventeen Century standing by the side of the road at the city limits. She glared into the car as Melinda looked back at her. A few yards further was a large sign, "Welcome To Collinsport – A Nice Place to Live." From behind it, a headless horseman in dark gray attire was leading his midnight black steed out to the field beyond the trees.

"Wow…" She had a feeling she was going to be seeing a lot of ghosts.

"What?" Jim looked at her and back to the road as they passed cottages, clapboard houses and the sign for Haskell's Horse farm before the bridge over Collins Creek where two teenagers and a phantom fisherman fished over the edge. "Are you seeing a lot of ghosts?"

"This is one haunted town…" Melinda spoke and then noticed eight kids riding in her back seat. "Where did you kids come from?" They were all around five to eight years old. There was a chubby kid with a beanie cap, a darling little brunette cutie with big brown eyes, another little cherubic girl with big blue eyes and blonde hair, a chubby smaller boy who resembled the one in the beanie, an African-American kid with ribbons in his hair, a blonde boy a bit older with a big mane of blonde hair, a freckled boy with red hair wearing a baseball uniform and a skinny African-American boy wearing a bowler hat.

"We got kids in the back seat?" Jim was unprepared for the contact.

"Yeah…" Melinda talked to them a bit as they drove past Eagle Hill Cemetery. "There's an old abandoned out tuberculosis hospital in the woods back there. They died there around the turn of the century. They just want out at the toy store."

"Great…" Jim stopped at the stoplight in front of the Collinsport Historical Center next to the main city cemetery and the kids vanished. There were lines of connected shops in front of them and across the street ranging from Coleman's Department Store, Colburn's Pharmacy and the large white Collinsport Inn and Restaurant. A sign directed tourists to check out the boardwalk stores and eateries such as the Blue Whale Bar and Grill looking over Simm's Cove. In the spot of the former Todd Antique Store was the aerobics studio opened by Carolyn Stoddard-Loomis and Maggie Collins of Collinwood. The ghosts of Philip and Megan Todd floated from the parking lot and across the street just behind Melinda and Jim's SUV. As Jim checked his directions for Collinwood, Melinda saw ghosts and Collinsport natives, alive and non-corporeal, modern and forgotten, vibrant and transparent…

"This is one haunted town…" Melinda mumbled under breath.

"Mel…" Jim pulled forward when the light changed to turn left on to Highway 186 continuing east, passing one cemetery on their right for one on their left. "Did you see a Collins Road back there?"

"Pull over…" Melinda asked as she rolled the window down to talk to a mom pushing her daughter in a stroller. "Excuse me?" The lady was heading into a doctor's office, but a man in a beard noticed Melinda. "Excuse me? Can you tell me how to get to Collinwood?"

"You can see me?"

"Oh no…"

"I'm Bill Malloy…" He was so happy to meet someone who could see ghosts. "Can you tell Carolyn Stoddard I don't blame her uncle for my murder."

"Hey…" The ghost of former Sheriff George Patterson appeared on Jim's side of the car. "Can you tell current Sheriff Taylor that Old Man Lawson is making bootleg whiskey again?"

"Can you talk my daughter out of selling the house?" Another ghost appeared in front of the car.

"You're going to Collinwood?" Mr. Wells, the former hotel manager, was chuckling. "You are going to love it there!"

"Mel, you getting directions." Jim did not see the ghosts. All he saw was a very nice and pleasant New England town with one cemetery too many.

"I'm taking requests!" Melinda was deluged with ghosts at her car window as if she were a take-out window. "Amantea? How do you spell that?" Mister Amantea wanted his granddaughter, Diane, to get his old war bonds. Miss Hutchinson wanted the tree cut down at her grave blocking her view. Ezra Braithewaite wanted his ashes at his son's house instead of his ex-wife. This was way too many. Melinda could not write fast enough. Getting impatient, Jim turned into the front parking lot of Pruitt's Fix-It Shop, turned round and started heading back west along main street.

"Jim, I have to help them cross over!" Melinda reacted embarrassed.

"Mel, we're only here for the weekend." Jim tried to rationalize things. "You do not have time to cross over an entire town's worth of ghosts."

"Other side of Eagle Hill Cemetery…" William leaned forward pointing from the back seat. "Second road past Dock Street…" He showed the way…

"Jim, turn here." Melinda pointed at the sign for Collins Road at the base of the hill under Eagle Hill Cemetery. Jim paused before turning. Just before he turned, Melinda saw the ghost of Ben Stokes at roadside next to her.

"You are going to love Collinwood!" He was laughing heartily. "And Collinwood is going to love you!" Jim turned the SUV on to Collins Road, and Melinda looked to William in the back seat. He looked back at her with a little grin.

"You are so going to love this." He told her as Jim drove through excessive woods, an abandoned barn at roadside, two nearly derelict homes and past thick woodland obscuring a great hill in the distance with a large castle-like edifice on top. Jim noticed the stone wall to his right ending at a great stone and brick gateway with open gates. The road ahead split into two lanes lined by trees on both sides, which joined to a point at "Bleeder Hill Point" to ascend the hill. It was the place where many Collins family members from Roger Collins in 1967 to most recently J.R. Loomis in 2004 coming too fast down the hill had driven off the road. Jim started driving forward.

"Turn right." William remarked.

"Turn right." Melinda repeated him, and Jim turned into a fairly recent paved road that rolled down along the base of the hill through the wooded estate past the old stables and through several trees. Through the trees to her left, she saw the partially obscured brick retaining wall that supported the drive up the hill. Their drive was pleasant as the sun poked through the trees here and there.

"This is some estate." Jim mustered a grin.

"Oh my god…" Melinda looked into the clearing for the Old House ahead of them. Around the house, she saw more ghosts in period attire. There had to be in excess of twenty, maybe as many as fifty, around her in the woods and in the tree line beyond the house, mulling around as if they were in a park waiting for a parade. It was just a small percentage of everyone who had ever died in the history of Collinwood, but these were the ones connected to the Collins family and the estate. The ghost of Daphne Harridge came down the path from the main house. The Three Widows were heading to the cliffs in unison and a few spectral hounds rushed to join up with young Clay Collins, the young brother of Roger and Elizabeth Collins who died in 1235 of influenza. The ghost of Josette Collins glided up alongside them as they came upon the cobblestones where Sara Collins parked her sports car. Josette joined up with her husband, Jeremiah, his bloodied, bandaged face melting away to his handsome face. Ben's ghost caught up with them and looked round to all the ghosts, but they did not come to rush her. They had promised William they would not.

"A lot of ghosts?" Jim parked the car next to Angelique's Beamer.

"A lot of ghosts…" Melinda stepped forward to finally stretch her legs. The apparition of Benjamin Drew bowed to her. The shade of Joanna Mills beamed with a big smile in her presence. There were more than twenty ghosts just around Melinda coming to meet her or just see her in person. Benjamin dated back to the founding of the town in 1673, Josette and Jeremiah were contemporaries of the first Barnabas Collins. Reverend Silas Trask, the old witch-hunter, lifted his head high to observe Melinda. Young Vanessa Tisdale, a deceased girlfriend of David Collins, stayed around from 1975 to love him from afar. Melinda turned round in her dress as they whispered and watched in awe of her. On the front porch, the doors opened and Angelique Collins came out…

"Now, behave yourselves…" She chided the ghosts. "You promised…" She stood in a comfortable large bulky sweater with the sleeves pushed up to her elbows and a long skirt hanging down to her soft-heeled shoes. She had incredible long blonde hair pulled into a ponytail, vibrant blue azure eyes and powerful rosy cheekbones. Time had barely touched her. As William's mother, she had to be in her late sixties maybe early seventies, but she actually looked young enough to be his older sister. When she looked upon Melinda, her eyes exuded such loving warmth that Melinda realized just how special this woman was. Jim was struck by just how beautiful she was. She looked like an American princess tempered by suburban sensibilities.

"Miss Gordon… welcome…" Angelique reached to warmly meet Melinda. "Welcome to Collinwood!"

"Mrs. Collins…" Melinda stepped up on to the porch. "It is such an honor… wait, you can see ghosts?"

"Yes…" Angelique saw her son standing next to Jim. "Didn't my son tell you I was a witch?"

Melinda looked back to William stunned by that piece of news.

"Did I forget to mention that?" William stood with his arms folded.


	5. Chapter 5

5

When William heard that his father was visiting him at the mausoleum, he rushed off to catch up with him. Although Angelique offered to let Melinda and Jim stay in the Old House as her guests and friends of her son, Jim wanted to make a reservation at the local hotel, but upon hearing about what the food was like there, he wished he had accepted Mrs. Collins very generous offer. Back at the Old House, Melinda sat for a minute in the Old House parlor. The room looked like a display from a museum. In fact, the whole house was one immense historical landmark with preserved period furniture, a painting of William's father in a suit by Samuel Evans over the fireplace, a period Queen Anne clock before that and old fashioned kerosene lamps and candelabras through out. Melinda admired the bright red curtains and the hard wood floor covered by a hand woven carpet. She felt as if she were somehow thrust back in time to the Eighteenth century. The only modern convenience she saw was a carefully disguised electrical outlet beneath the table with Angelique's cell phone resting on top of the table.

"I understand you are in to antiques." Angelique poured Melinda some sherry. "I'm sure I can convince my darling Barnabas to part with a few things."

"Yes, I have a shop in Grandview." Melinda briefly sat with Angelique and lightly sampled the sherry after her hostess was nice enough to pour it. "So, you're a witch…"

"Yes…" Angelique sipped some sherry. "My ancestor was from Martinique…"

Melinda suddenly noticed Josette's ghost by her side and looking away in disgust. Angelique noticed it too.

"I'm very proud of my Wiccan heritage…" Angelique added.

"Especially when you use it to get what you want." Josette interrupted.

"Don't mind her."

"Melinda, she's almost four hundred years old." Josette stood clad in her wedding dress and whispered to the lovely Grandview native. "She cast the spell to kill me and put a curse on my true love until he promised to marry her."

"But I'm not that person anymore…" Angelique declared without malice. "I may have done things I'm not proud of, but a woman does things out of love…" She sipped her sherry. "Melinda, a woman's heart is as deep as the ocean…"

"She was on the Titanic and in England during both the world wars." Josette wanted Melinda to know who she was dealing with. "She still uses witchcraft behind Barnabas's back."

"Witchcraft is a very noble religion…" Angelique insisted. "And Barnabas loves me." She looked to Josette. "You promised you'd never bring that up again."

"I did promise…" Josette had changed a lot during her non-corporeal existence. "And I also released Barnabas from his promise. All I care about is William. He's the son I might have had, but… Melinda, he loves Ally so much. Her anguish is keeping him here."

"What's keeping you here?" Melinda looked to Josette.

Josette looked to Angelique.

"I am here to protect and look over my dear Barnabas's children…" She spoke with a French accent that had faded over the centuries. "Once, from Angelique, but now… from everyone else."

"Where's Ally now?" Melinda asked.

"My bed chambers…"

"Now, my daughter's room…" Angelique corrected her former mistress and rose to lead the way to the staircase up to the second floor. "Sara just married herself. She was going to move into William's home, but… she chose not to." Angelique paused on the stairs. "She thought it would not be… appropriate."

"Angelique…" Josette spoke to her former servant and now equal on the top landing. "Amanda scared Sara out of William's house. She thinks she's mistress of it now!"

"Who's Amanda?" Melinda asked.

"William's cousin…" Angelique spoke under a whisper and lead the way around the railing up another short series of steps to the room over the drawing room. She turned to the door left ajar and peeked inside to a room decorated in antique Eighteenth century furniture. The room had a somber feel to it. Upon the canopy bed, curled up into a ball under the sheets and wasting away from grief, Ally's tiny fragile face was colored in her sorrow. The deep bags under her eyes marred her childlike face, her once long hair was tangled into a wild nest of straggly locks about her head and her doll-like eyes filled with tears. Her tiny hands clutched the top of her blankets pulled up before her. Despite a plate of food on the table by the bed, she would not eat. She would not talk. One way or another, she was going to send herself to catch up with her husband in the afterlife unless he could stop her. After hearing him talk about it so much, she was convinced it existed. Yet, despite his spirit being so close to him, she did not feel him truly near her. His hand on her waist, William looked up to Melinda, his mother and Josette with great sadness in his eyes.

"Dad's on his way home." He spoke to his mother.

"I don't understand…" Melinda looked to William's mother. "If you can see William, why can't you tell her that he's here?"

"She either can't hear me…" Angelique looked to Melinda then to her grieving daughter-in-law. "Or she doesn't believe me." She turned away to meet her husband down stairs. Melinda looked toward Ally on the bed.

"Melinda, mon cherie…" Josette tenderly stroked the young beauty's chin. "William speaks so highly of you. I know you can help her." She paused with a light grin. "You look much like myself at your age." She turned away heading to the back stairway. Realizing she had quite a job ahead of her, Melinda strolled forward into the room, pulling a chair over from the window next to Josette's portrait over the fireplace. She looked to William hovering over his wife and felt the petite lady lawyer's great sorrow. Her hand reached over and embraced Ally's cold hands.

"Ally, my name is Melinda. I'm a friend of William from Grandview, Pennsylvania." She introduced herself. "I'm sure he must of spoke of me a few times."

A tear glided down over Ally's face into the bed.

"Ally, honey, " Melinda tried to fix her hair. "I see spirits, and William is right here by your side. I can help you talk to him. He says he loves you so much, but he wants you to stop grieving. He wants you to stop crying and start talking. I know you love him, I know you miss him, but killing yourself like this is not the answer. You have to find the strength to go on."

Ally didn't respond. Melinda looked up into William's face in front of her.

"Do you recall first meeting William?" Melinda was now repeating things William told her. "He showed up at your law firm in Boston because it was supposed to be haunted. He fell in love with you right there. Do you remember Elaine? She thought she was going to marry him, but he married you because he wanted to be your prince charming. He wanted to carry you off to his castle, and he did, and you two both had two beautiful little babies!"

Ally barely reacted. Melinda felt as if she were a ghost as well.

"William wants you to live." Melinda stroked Ally's head to show to her that she was real. "You can ask me anything. I can tell you what he says. He wants to know if you recall your first date. The first time you two kissed." She looked to William. "What's a unisex?"

"It was sort of a communal bathroom at her old law firm."

"That must have been some law firm…" Melinda looked back to Ally. "Ally, think about your friends there, Renee, John, Richard, Billy, Georgia…"

"Show her this." William popped up beyond the bed and pointed at a picture at his sister's vanity mirror. Melinda rose and moved around the bed. William had pointed to a photo on the mirror of Ally with her daughters, Georgia and Lainey. It looked to have been taken in Boston. Melinda looked at those two little cherubs with long dark brown hair and chuckled at their faces. Little Georgia Collins at four years old was missing her front tooth of her baby teeth, and little three years old Lainey had her finger up her nose.

"Oh my god, look at those big brown eyes…" She giggled. "Are these your daughters? They're precious!"

"I know." William regretted not being able to be there to raise them. Melinda took the picture to show to Ally. "Ally, are these your daughters? They are so adorable. They both have your chin and William's eyes, but if something happens to you, what's going to happen to them?" Melinda's eyes filled with emotion trying to get through to her. "Ally, they just lost their father. Don't take their mommy away from them."

"My babies…" Ally finally spoke! Her eyes started welling with tears.

"Yes, your babies!!!" Melinda tried luring Ally further. "Think of your babies! They need you right now! William needs you to take care of them. He wants you to take care of them."

"William…" Ally started looking for her husband. She moved weakly, her thin arms did not have the strength to lift even her tiny body, but Melinda was there to help her sit up.

"Ally, I'm here…" William tried to hold her, but his eyes welled up as his hands passed through her. "I am here! Please see me! Please see me!!" He started getting brighter until his face just barely appeared to his wife. Ally's weak chest tried to muster a breath as his visage appeared and faded away.

"Don't leave me!" Ally reached for him with her last ounce of strength. "She took him away from me." Her voice quivered. "He didn't believe me, and she took him away from me."

"Who? Elaine?" Melinda asked.

"Get away from her." Another ghost appeared. Statuesque with a mane of curly bright red hair, the ghost of Amanda Collins stood in the dark form-fitting sweater and blue jeans she was wearing the moment she took her life. She stood at the head of the bed looking down at Melinda. "She may have took him away from me in life but she's definitely not taking him away from me in the afterlife."

Melinda sat confused as Ally grieved for her husband over her shoulder.

"Amanda…" William appeared before his fiery-haired cousin. "What did you do?"

"She killed him." Ally bawled as her emotions erupted. "She took him away from me!" William reacted as if he didn't know. If he had been killed, he should have known. Ghosts always appeared as how they died in life. He felt his chest and his head looking for the wound, but Melinda saw it herself. He'd been shot in the back at close range.

"She shot you in the back." She revealed as Ally relived the tragedy in her mind.

"Ally was supposed to die after I adjusted the brakes in her car." Amanda told William. "And then I was going to move in and help take care of the girls, and…" She looked to William. "You were finally going to love me, but then…" Amanda moved around William to talk to Melinda. "Ally survived. She survived! What happened next… I couldn't stop myself. I couldn't stop myself if I had tried…"

Ally was crying as Melinda heard the details of the dark crime.

"I shot William in the back…" Amanda confessed. "And after I realized what I had did, I couldn't live with myself, so I placed the gun to my own head." She paused to cover her lips with her own hands. "I messed up. I messed up big. Melinda… a woman's heart is as deep as the ocean… and just as complex." She dropped her head. "Ally, I'm so sorry. I screwed up all our lives. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted William to love me."

"Amanda…" William looked to his cousin. "I can't forgive you, at least, not yet. I tried helping you so many times, and if you could not realize how much I cared about you, I won't try again. You're going to have to find the way to forgive yourself before I try."

"Ally…" Melinda tried to fight back her tears after hearing this soap opera. "William really is here, and he wants to talk to you."

"William…" Ally weakly tried to sit up.

"Ally…" He was suddenly on the bed. "Try to see me again, baby. Try to see me…" He reached out to her as Amanda vanished in shame. "I'm here."

"He's right in front of you." Melinda guided Ally's eyes.

"I love you so much." William's face appeared immaterial in the air within the canopy bed. "I'll never leave your side. I'll be by your side until we are truly together again. I'll follow you by your side and watch you take care of our babies, but to do that, I want you to live. I want you to live." He grew weak as he faded away. Not even Melinda could see him.

"I love you too…" Ally grew dizzy as she tried to speak. She leaned weakly into Melinda holding her up on the bed. The two of them mourned together a person they both loved and respected as the estate made a breath of relief. In the parlor downstairs, Angelique placed her hand to her chest in memory of all the good her son had did in life. The front doors opened as her husband entered.

"I surmise things are good?" He removed his wrap and hung it over his cane on the coat rack by the front door.

"Very good." Angelique embraced him with a kiss.


	6. Chapter 6

6

"So, Mr. Clancy…" Barnabas met and encountered Melinda and Jim over dinner. "What do you think of our small town?"

"It's a beautiful little village you have here, Mr. Collins." Jim sat and dabbed his lips after Angelique had invited him and Melinda to dinner. "It's as if you've been untouched by the outside world."

"Sometimes…" Barnabas passed a look over to Angelique collecting the dishes as if they shared a secret. "It seems things stay frozen in time here, and at other times, it seems the world visits us." He sat back to pass his napkin over his lips and silver goatee.

"If you don't mind me asking…" Jim sipped some sherry. "I bet the fishing is incredible up here."

"It is…" Barnabas leaned back. "When I was a boy, my Uncle Jeremiah used to take my brother and I fishing on a small lake north of town here, but… things change, lakes vanish and this thing called progress takes away the memories of the past." Melinda looked up at that point. Jeremiah's ghost stood there in a period costume from two hundred years prior and placed his finger to his lips that she wouldn't mention him.

"If you're interested..." Barnabas continued. "I can show you original etchings of how the town used to look."

"Wow, that would be fascinating." Jim looked to his wife. "Melinda?"

"You go ahead…" Melinda let him loose for the moment. "I want to check on Ally." She rose from the dinner table as Barnabas pulled a large voluminous tome of etches from the bookcase next to the dining room fireplace. Passing through the doorway into the parlor, she noticed William passing through the foyer and picked up her step to join him on the front porch. He stood there looking out past the front columns of the porch to the front veranda.

"Ally's eating…" He spoke. "She's going to be getting stronger. She's talking to me. I give her little signals to let her know when I'm around. I touch her hair, I hold her by the waist… Thank you so much, Melinda."

"You really need to cross over." Melinda told him.

"I can't. I made a promise."

"How many times can you appear to her?" Melinda reacted concerned as she walked around him. "Appearing like that took a lot of your strength…"

"Collinwood's special. Ally's special…" William grinned that boyish smile of his. "She sees unicorns, dancing babies… she dances on ice… she… she sees magic in the world." He took a deep cleansing breath from his ethereal lungs. "She'll see me one way or the other…"

"You've…" Melinda saw Clay Collins and the ghostly hounds running past the cars across the driveway. "You've got a lot of ghosts here. How many do you have just on the estate?"

"I identified twenty-three ghosts in my book about Collinwood…" William continued. "I was way off… over a hundred, at least."

"At least…" The apparitions of Victoria Winters and Peter Bradford strolled down the lane holding hands from the other direction.

"Something you need to know about ghosts, Melinda…" William revealed what had learned as a spirit. "Places like Collinwood, Waverly Hills, The Stanley Hotel, Eastern State, The Winchester House… they're not just haunted locations, they're ghost communities for earthbound spirits and we get messages from other communities out there. Most spirits don't even like scaring the living. They like living around them, but it's the living who don't want to be around ghosts. Most ghosts just carry on the roles they had in life, they look after their descendants, their homes, the people and things they love…" He looked at Melinda to tell her the truth. "Now, some ghosts are like idiotic frat brothers… they like playing jokes, making fun of the living, but they are never malicious. However, there are a few, a very limited few, who take offense at those among the living who would encourage the deceased to crossover. Those are the ones you need to be aware of and be afraid of. According to them, there is no afterlife. They think ghosts are supposed to stay here. To ghosts, it's bad enough being a paranormal investigator, but it's even worse to be a bad one."

"Why are you telling me this?" Melinda asked.

"Do you remember Cyrus House?" William spoke ominously. "It was knocked down recently and the property divided up into private homes. The spirits there found homes in the new residents."

"And Claire?" Melinda finally got the news she was dreading.

"Claire Dobson was a witch." William told her what he had learned from the house's patriarch. "She was born in 1832 and poisoned all seven of her husbands, burying them in her garden. Charles Cyrus was the only one to survive; he killed her with a shotgun blast to the chest but was never convicted. The authorities cleared him of any wrongdoing after discovering the bodies of Clare's husbands. He went on to have eight kids with his second wife, Kate Witherspoon."

"And Claire…"

"Her maiden name was Gordon." William revealed. "Her brother was your great-great-great-grandfather."

Melinda turned away in shock with her hand to her chest. She walked around in a circle trying to think. That explained their similarity!

"Oh god…" Melinda shuddered. It felt as if someone walked over her grave.

"She's dangerous, Melinda." William grinned lovingly to Melinda as if she were his sister and tried to take her hand. "Please be careful."

"I will…"

"Jim's coming…" William looked up. "I'm checking on Ally." He vanished as Jim appeared in the foyer, started to look up the stairs and then noticed Melinda through the open front doors. He walked out to meet her and hold her about her dainty waist.

"What's up?"

"Just talking to William…" She confessed.

"So…" Jim looked at Melinda and fell in love with her all over again. "What do you think about moving to Collinsport?"

"What?" Melinda lit up with a smile. She was not expecting that. She lit up with a smile.

"I was talking to this guy at the Blue Whale." Jim revealed. "They need EMTs up here. He asked me if I was interested."

"You're serious about this."

"A little bit…"

Melinda just scoffed a bit with a light chuckle, held on to the two-seated swing on the front stoop and shook her head in disbelief.

"Are you serious?" She looked away as Jim took her by the hand and pulled her close as if they were in a carefully choreographed play. "I mean… this town needs someone like me to help the ghosts, but I don't want to leave Grandview. My friends and home are there."

"Thank god…" Jim let her off the hook. "I don't want to move to Collinsport. It's a nice little town, but, let's face it… it has way too many ghosts!"

Melinda giggled with a brief little squeak and jumped into his arms in love.

"Let's head home…" She looked into her husband's brown eyes. "But in the morning…"

"I can manage that." They kissed as several ghostly heads peeked at them from around the house.

"Do you mind?" Melinda noticed them.

Back in Grandview, Delia closed up the antique shop and headed by Jim and Melinda's house to take in the newspaper and the mail. As her son, Ned collected the paper and mail, Delia fussed with her key to the house and unlocked the door. It opened with a spooky creak as she removed her coat and draped it over the rail by the door leading up the staircase.

"Where do you want me to put it?" Ned had the paper and the mail.

"Mail by the phone, newspaper in the kitchen." Delia looked for the plastic water can for watering Melinda's plants. Her breath condensed in the air. "Why is it so cold in here?"

"That's weird…" Ned checked the thermostat. "Temperature is reading seventy-three."

"Run upstairs and look for an open window…" Delia instructed her son. "And try and do it without raiding their refrigerator."

"Okay…" Ned passed through the shade of Claire Dobson standing in the archway to the living room. She watched Delia watering the plants and walked around her unseen. She passed her hand through the table behind the sofa, paused looking at the picture of Melinda and Jim on the front table and looked back to Delia with a strange little simpering grin on her lips. Delia paused, shivered from the cold in her bones and looked around the empty house.

"Ned, did you find that window?" She called.

"Everything's closed!" He called back. Delia had a nervous feeling she was being watched. Her eyes panned the empty room.

"Melinda isn't here right night." She told the room. "She'll be back tomorrow night." She said it, but it didn't dissuade her fears. She just wanted to hurriedly water the plants and get out. Invisible to her eyes, Claire narrowed her eyes toward this person and started grinning malevolently. A light chuckle came from her and developed into a laugh… Holding her hands out, her laughter started ringing through the house as lights came on and flashed and the TV flicked from her power. Her dark evil laughter echoed through the house…

END


End file.
